Firing Government Workers

Unlike the private sector, where hiring and firing workers ultimately depends on their productivity — i.e. how much they contribute to the company’s profits — public sector employment often depends on political considerations. More specifically, political leaders, whose top priority is to maximize votes rather than profits, are reluctant to fire workers because doing so creates a political backlash and costs votes. What is more, in many countries around the world, not only in poor countries but even in many rich countries, a job in the public sector is a prevalent form of political patronage, doled out as gifts in exchange for political support. Horror stories abound — dead people collecting government salaries or pensions, infants and children doing the same, so-called government workers — so-called because they do not do any work whatsoever — drawing salaries for two jobs while not even bothering to show up at either, and so forth. The amount of wasted, misused and stolen tax payers’ money is often staggering…